New research has found baby turtles making their first swim out to sea are more likely to become fish food if the nest they emerged from is too near a jetty.

Key points:

Tracking devices showed the hatchlings did not swim straight out to sea but spent time near the shoreline or under jetties

The location of the hatchling tracking devices under jetties was found to be because they had been eaten

Researchers expected 10 per cent predation of the hatchlings, but found it was about 70 per cent

The study took place on Thevenard Island, off the coast of Onslow in north Western Australia, where 61 flatback turtle hatchlings were tracked using small tags the size of Tic Tacs.

It was expected the hatchlings would swim straight out to safer open waters.

"Normally when we have tracked the baby turtles, once they enter the water, they swim very quickly offshore because the near-shore zone is where all the predators are hanging out and wanting to eat them," said co-author Dr Michele Thums from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Instead, the tracking devices showed the hatchlings were spending more time near the shoreline at night and spending the day underneath a nearby jetty.

It was then researchers made a surprising discovery — they we no longer tracking hatchlings but the fish that had eaten them.